Robert Jarvik, MD

Dr. Robert Jarvik is widely known as the inventor of the first permanent total artificial heart. In the mid-1970s, he and fellow researchers at the University of Utah designed and developed the air-driven Jarvik-7 total artificial heart, the first to successfully sustain a dying patient with the goal of lifelong support.

From 1978 to 1987, Dr. Jarvik ran the Salt Lake City company Symbion, Inc., a company formed to produce the Jarvik-7. In 1987, he moved to New York and founded Jarvik Research, Inc. where he began work on the Jarvik 2000® Left Ventricular Assist System.

Today, Dr. Jarvik is Chairman and CEO of Jarvik Heart, Inc. He holds numerous patents for medical device technology, and degrees from Syracuse University, New York University, and the University of Utah College of Medicine.